The changing position of women in engineering worldwide

The preliminary results from a research project on the changing position of women engineers worldwide are presented and discussed. These results include data on women engineers in a number of different countries for the period 1960-1997. They were obtained from a survey of 130 engineering institutions in 55 different countries. As an introduction to the presentation of these results, some of the problems facing women engineers in industry and education are considered. The data are discussed in detail; a number of hypotheses to explain the data are proposed, and further investigations and additional data requirements to allow these hypotheses to be verified or disproved are identified. These hypotheses include increases in the percentage of women engineers resulting from the effects of changes in the political system, convergence of the images of women and engineers, and generally good conditions for women and their involvement in public life.